"Female engineers aren't men in skirts. Rather, they've their own set of needs, dreams, ambitions and God-given talents that they bring to their role as engineers."

These are the inspiring words of Telecom Namibia's General Manager of Service Provisioning and Assurance, Chie Wasserfall, when she delivered a motivational talk to a group of female engineering students at the Polytechnic of Namibia in Windhoek on March 12.

A former senior lecturer of engineering at the Polytechnic of Namibia and one of the notable few successful female engineers in this male-dominated industry in Namibia, Wasserfall was invited as one of the guest speakers to mark the "Women in Engineering Day" hosted by the Polytechnic's School of Engineering yesterday.

Latest figures show that of the 847 professional engineers, corporate engineers, engineering technicians and their counterparts-in-training registered with the Engineering Council of Namibia as of 31 January 2009, only 11% of them are women.

With only a very few female engineers in the country, Wasserfall cautioned the budding female engineers that pursuing a career in this field is not easy, but possible with dedication and hard work.

"Let me assure you that once you step out and complete your degree, there will be a job. It all depends entirely on you. Increasing globalisation, new markets, and changing employment patterns also mean that an engineering career is now a truly international one," Wasserfall said.

She urged the students to defy all the stereotypical prejudices, biases and cultural viewpoints that portray women as being incapable of entering this male-dominated field of engineering.

Wasserfall added that the ways in which to break this mould of being branded as "just a woman" is to use their inherent strengths and abilities by thinking "outside the box" as engineers.

"Stay being woman, don't try to be a man. The biggest mistake that a woman would do is to act what exactly stereotyping society expects us to do. However, never ever use your woman side to get want you want because in a male dominated environment, it just won't work," she said.

"In the end, it's women themselves who set boundaries on what they can achieve. As long as they dream and pursue, then they can attain anything they set out to accomplish. There are many advantages to being female engineers and scientists. Let's leverage them well."

The female engineering students were visibly spurred by Wasserfall's powerful talk and described it as inspiring and valuable.

"I believe there's no limit as to what we women engineers can do and I feel we can achieve greater things," said third-year B-Tech Electronics student Findano Shikonda.

"Out of a class of 30 engineering students we're only four girls! There are very few female students because they're afraid and think that engineering is difficult. But that isn't the case," added Peneyambeko Haifeke, a first-year engineering student.

The celebration of "Women in Engineering Day" was jointly organised by the Polytechnic of Namibia and Women in Engineering International to serve as a platform for networking, mentoring, boost self-confidence to overcome prejudice against women in engineering.